“Marching forward means ensuring all our voices are heard”

The day before Marjorie Anderson stepped on to the stage at FW’s sixth International Women’s Day First Nations event, she was named NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year. 

“I was told at school I would never amount to anything because, to be perfectly honest, chalk and talk isn’t the way most Aboriginal people learn,“ said Anderson, opening the Witchery, Westpac and The BlackCard sponsored lunch and panel discussion. 

“I was a bit naughty.”

This Redfern born and raised Gamilaroi woman found role models outside the classroom, among the First Nations women she saw fighting for rights and services in the community. 

“So when I was told I’d never amount to anything, I thought, I’m not going to get angry. I’m going to get even – and become something.”

Today, Anderson leads 13YARN, a culturally safe crisis line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples which, in just three years, has taken almost 70,000 calls. Speaking at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, on Gadigal land, she shared how the service gained trust through co-design.

“And I mean real co-design. I went out with a blank sheet of paper and I said, ‘you tell me what you want’ … and we came up with something magical and wonderful.” 

Anderson also attributed the success of 13YARN to hiring based on lived experience, rather than tertiary qualifications. 

“I see some jobs and I think, why do you need a degree to do that job? Why do you put degrees in every single job application when lived experience is just as good?” she said.  

“When Aboriginal women are looking for support in the DV [domestic violence] space, they won’t ring 1800 RESPECT because it’s counsellors. What they want is peers. They want Aboriginal women who have been through domestic and family violence and come out the other end as strong, resilient women.”

As Head of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Strategy at Our Watch – a national organisation for the prevention of violence against women – fellow panellist Regan Mitchell spoke about increasing awareness of domestic and family violence in First Nations communities. 

“I find myself racking my brain over, how can I convince white people to care about First Nations women in the same way we care about other women?” she said.  

Mitchell – a proud Wiradjuri-Ngunnawal woman – revealed that between June and November last year in the Northern Territory, eight Aboriginal women were murdered by men. 

She said she shared this figure at a recent domestic violence conference, asking attendees to raise their hands if they were already aware of the harrowing number.  

“There were 300 people in the room and six people put their hands up,” Mitchell recalled.

“Can you imagine if eight white women were murdered in Canberra in five months? We’d be flooded by media and our leaders and our society would be outraged… But when Aboriginal women are murdered, we rarely hear from the media. We rarely hear from leaders and society.

“To march forward in any context, you first have to have all the information… We need you to stand up for us. We need you to stand with us if we want a real chance of change – and I believe we all want that.”

“We are a minority within a minority… yet here we are, being the catalyst for change.”

Bundaburra Yidinji and Western Yalanji woman Lisa Sarago echoed the importance of visibility. Taking to the podium, she pointed out that the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s latest gender pay gap data, released earlier in the week, made no mention of Indigenous women. 

“We aren’t reported on. We aren’t seen. We are invisible,” she said. “Without the data being reported in such a public way that it elicits a response from society to call for more action, how can we, as Indigenous women, even begin to dream about being able to have our rights fought for by the same society, with that same ferocity?”

Sarago is the CEO of Land on Heart, a software company advancing First Nations cultural awareness in a digital world. She paid respect to “staunch, warrior matriarchs” who paved her way, including her own great-grandmother, who would take a little rowboat off Palm Island and dive for coral, which she’d sell to tourists. 

“That was just one of her little hustles,” said Sarago. “She saved all her money, she got permission to leave Palm Island, she went to Ingham and she bought a home.” 

Speaking of her own experience, the 2022 Women in Digital’s Indigenous Leader of the Year said: “I’m Aboriginal, I’m a woman, I’m a CEO and I’m in the tech industry. And I can count on one hand how many of us exist right now, at this moment – and that’s sad.”

Sarago gave a nod to Westpac for its award-winning Indigenous Cadetship program, MobTech. Prior to the panel discussion, Chief Information Officer, Group Business Units at Westpac, Miranda Ratajski, announced the return of another inclusive initiative, the EmPOWERUP Tech Returnship program. 

“The fight for diversity in this space often feels like an uphill battle,” Sarago said. “Marching forward for all women and girls, to me, means ensuring that all our voices are heard, our faces are seen, our experiences are validated.”

Proud Wonnarua, Bundjalung, Birri Gubba and Gungalu woman Yarraka Bayles is helping people and organisations understand First Nations culture through her work with female-led, Aboriginal-owned consultancy, The BlackCard. 

She said events like the FW International Women’s Day panel – which was hosted by proud Wangkumara-Barkindji woman and Indigenous health leader, Gabrielle Ebsworth – were important for highlighting the role of Indigenous women in business. 

“We are a minority within a minority,” said Bayles. “Yet here we are, being the catalyst for change, creating economic independence and hopefully now starting to experience intergenerational wealth.” 

The award-winning artist and media personality closed the discussion with a directive to reframe the narrative around First Nations women – and focus on their strengths and achievements.

“Please don’t confuse us for the social problems, for the statistics, because look at the diverse excellence in the room today,” she said.  

“I think on the philosophy and the foundations of Aboriginal culture – a non ego-based culture, a culture based on loving, sharing, caring and reciprocity – and that gives me the strength and courage to overcome all of the self-doubt, all of the self-sabotage. Just to be here and stand confidently, but with humility. To be able to bring people on this journey, to remind us that we are all legacy holders.”

EVENT ARTWORK: Alysha Menzel
SPEAKERS DRESSED BY: Witchery
FLOWERS: The Floral Decorator
HAIR AND MAKEUP: Jaclyn Hnitko
PHOTOGRAPHY: Stephanie Simcox & Savini
LOCATION: Four Seasons Hotel Sydney